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In the summer of 1997, after Labour announced its plans to abolish the grant and bring in tuition fees, a small core of Oxford activists began to argue the case for non-payment. They faced widespread hostility, and with the legislation not yet in place there was little they could do in practical terms except raise awareness of what the Government's policy would mean for students. For the first years who arrived at Oxford in October 1998, the situation was quite different. They were the first year eligible to pay fees, and the problem affected them personally. Worried by the threat of non-payment, a number of colleges took pre-emptive action by operating a policy of no-fee, no-key. In other colleges, however, JCRs consulted their first years about setting up non-payment committees. Non-payers came forward across the University, although only three JCRs - Somerville, St Hugh's and Balliol - had large enough numbers for an organised campaign. At Balliol, college authorities refused to matriculate non-payers; quite understandably, this threat led to a large drop in numbers, as students who had been at Oxford less than a month came under pressure from their college, the University and, in many cases, their parents. By the sixth week of Michaelmas term only about twenty non-payers remained. However, the campaign had begun to attract national media attention, with the press swarming over Oxford in their eagerness to discern the fate of the "Balliol Two" (Balliol students Kate Atkinson and Alice Nash were threatened with expulsion for refusing to pay their fees). The seventeen non- payers at Somerville and their solitary comrade, Laura Paskell-Brown, at St Hilda's were able to build on this attention, and before long students across the country were looking to Oxford for leadership in the fight for free education.  To capitalise on this success, Oxford students organised a series of events to publicise and promote the non-payment campaign. Michaelmas term ended with a spontaneous demonstration of 300 people on the steps of the Bodleian library, and, of course, the media loved it. At the start of Hilary, OUSU organised a week of action in response to the University's decision to suspend the six remaining non-payers. The week culminated in a national demonstration, joint-organised by OUSU and the Campaign for Free Education. Almost 3000 students marched through the streets of Oxford in one of the largest protests outside London for many years. OUSU was by now receiving messages of solidarity and requests for help from student unions across the country. Not long afterwards, the University issued a statement ruling out the introduction of top-up fees - to great rejoicing, as it was the first university to do so. The last non-payers had by now paid their fees, but students continued to up the pressure, staging a 140-strong occupation of Exam Schools and calling on the University to declare its support for free education. In a sign of how much the situation has changed, the Vice- Chancellor recently asked student representatives to meet with him to discuss the situation. The period since the occupation has been somewhat difficult for the campaign. No catalyst equivalent to the threat of suspension of non-payers occurred so a series of smaller protests, including a picket of University Offices (which led to violent behaviour by the University Police) and the submission of a 4000 signature petition to the Vice Chancellor. It was hoped that tuition fees would remain in people's minds until the new academic year. The free education movement has made huge progress in the last year. Tactics such as non- payment are now acceptable to the majority of students, and the ground is being prepared for a larger and more effective campaign next year. In the NUS, too, there is a chance to replace a moribund national leadership with a one that will represent students' interests and fight unreservedly for free education. Far from being at an end, the campaign has just begun. |
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